Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1887-12-08
Mrs. Wiggins Paints Her
House.


with the mercury falling down among th'
zeroes.
I've braided all Reuben's old trousers an'
coats up into rugs, and declare when The
poor man got out in the rain the other day
and wet hisself clean through, there warn
enutf every day clothes in the house for hin
10 shit hisself into, and he had 10 put on hi'
black trousers and his swaller tail coat, thai
he's never made a practice of wearing any
where's except To prayer-mectings aud sun
days. Reuben was mad rs II bob-tailed doe
in tly-time, and seq he, giving the eat Il hist
out of the rocking-cheer, where she'd got
curled mp for IA nap, sen he
"Mirandy, you'd ort TO be ashamed OF
yourself, a-cutting up them good clothes OF
Ehine And them gray panterloons warn
wore out at all, except place on the knees
and mebby they needed TO be reseated." Sez
he Its lucky that I'm put together solid,
you'd braid me into n rug, soul and body, il
you could tear me up into strips as you can
IA pair OF panterloons.
And he kicked at that cat agin, jest rs she
was a-gwine 10 git back into the cheer
Strange 20 me that, when men-folks git mad,
they always spit out their spite onto the eat
or dog. Jest us il that animal was 10 blame
for my braidiug up them britches
But was sorry enuif afterward, when
Reuben come in from the barn, with his
swaller-tlil all spattered over with milk I;
he'd been a-milking, and the cow had took
n notion TO step into the pail 10 soak her
corms, aud the milk had flew all over the
coat-tails of the pardner of my joys and sor-
rors.
IL took me two hours, with n sponge aud
| some amomiay, and my eyes and nose wat
erng rs if had the chronical influenza. 10
scrub that milk oil. And then didn't git
| il of, for Reuben never could stand still "A
minnit 10 have anything done 10 him, and,
rs soon rs got Il good grab on them tails,
and got the sponge sot right 10 scrub he'd
fetch n wisk, and I'd lose my holt intirely.
Margaret Ann, that is our darter from
city school, has got n pile of new idees
| brought home with her. Bent's Corner il
an old d-fashioned place. and the folks don't
travel round 10 any great extent. And
materially we hain't got ahead so fur as some
parts of the world We still think that IL
amt nice and pious for man 10 have more
than one wife 10 time, and we shouldn't
| be likely 10 elect an absconding Canada
| tramp of a bank-caShier 10 be deacon of our
meeting house-not if we knowed about il /;
and we still think that il looks better not 10
| go a-fishing Sundays.
| Margaret Ann, almost as soon rs she got
home, begun 10 complain hcw oid-styled
our house looked II needed refurnishing,
| and repaintiuE, and rcpapcring, aud re-al-
| most everything else. Way, mama, ser
she--shc has taken 10 calling me ma and
mama Jest rs if she was three. .year-old-
} ''you have no idee how superaminated our
interior looks. There is nothing asthetick
or rershashy about il"
~ should hope not indeed" sez |. 81
shouldn't want anything with such sound
ing name rs them has got, in my insides, if
that is what you mean"
"Ma, how drcadfully vulgar you are II
Arabella De Jones should come 10 seem she
would fall into IA state of nervous prostra-
tion. She is so delicate and refined that she
would faint away If she should be in the
room with pair of those dreadful cowhide
| boots that pa wears, and have known her
10 have spasm when she inhaled the
| breath of someone who had been eating on
ions oh, she is altogether too ethereal for
this mundane spear -
'''Then should advise her to 60 TO a spear
where they don't eat onions, sez l. Bent
| Corner is no place for her."
"But, ma, why can't we fix up our old
house ?" sez Margaret Ann, a-tipping her
head on one side TO see how the little top
knot of a curl panned out, she'd been a.
winding onto a curling-iron. And full half
of the hair in ii stuck fast TO the iron, and
the smell of burnt hair was SO strong in the
house that / had to burn some coffee on top
of the stove TO fumigate the mir.
"'Twould cost money" sez |, ''and yer
father can't spare much, this year, on ac-
count of that hoss having the heaves and
dying, and milk going down TO two cents
onto n can
But Margaret Ann sed that didn't make
no difference-we could do the work our
selves And she talked Mt me so much and
used so many words that had never been
aired sense they was put into Webster or
the bridge, that / give in. / could have
stood out agin words of two syllables but
when they come to be shot ut me eight and
| ten syllables long, went down before em like
grass before four-hoss mowing-machine.
She talked the scheme into her pa in
much the same way, and got ten dollars out
of him and the liberty to do as she was n
mind to.
We harnessed the old mare into wagon
and went over to Smith vile, and got the
painter there to mix us some paint, and we
b0Sght some room paper, and some red cur
tains, and some prepared glue, and some
varnish, and some tacks with brass heads,
and other things too numerous to mention.
We begun on the front-room first We
piled all the furniture into the front entry,
and sot table aginst the door that was
loaded down with n lot of things, and Grand
marin Sawyer's chany set among 'em. That
chany set beat anything ever seed any
where in the way of chany, and I sot farm
| by it.
Margaret Ann put on an old red petticoat
| of mine over her dress and blouse of her
pas and tied her head up in a gingham n
prom, before she went to business. My uni
| form was one of Reuben's old calico shirts
| that | had kept for him to wear in haying-
time-because anybody sweats so, in haying
| that it rots the shirt clean to nothing-and
put it on outside of my old delaine skirt that
wear when I'm a-washing.
We had the wash bench and two barrels
| with board over 'em, to stand upon. |
had the barrels and Margaret Ann had the
| bench.